Bunch o' Monkeys

I’m currently at Minamitsutsujigaoka Elementary, waiting for class to start. The English teacher here is pretty amazing. Her lesson puts the standard small talk into the context of international communication. I’m here to encourage the students to use their English skills to find out more about the people they meet from other countries, and to make them aware that Japan is not as homogenous as they might think. Huzzah!

Now I'm waiting for them to come get me for lunch. Class was alright, though I had one punk in every class. The first class is always awkward. It’s an experiment, to see how the lesson will work with the class, the teacher, and my alertness at that time of the morning. It never goes “well,” it always just is. Today I was under the impression that the English teacher was going to be with me when I taught, in the same sense as the junior high situation. Turns out that when she said, “I teach the second grade,” she meant all the time. No wonder the lesson plan was so detailed; I walked in and thought, crap. The lesson plan is a little complicated for me to head on my own, and the teachers, well, I’m working with them for the first time. I’ve only spoken with one of them. The remaining two will be a surprise. I hope they speak English.

Technically I should go to the classroom early and talk to the teacher, explaining how I want to be introduced. I’m a bad, bad ALT.

The kids here look really familiar, like I should already know some of them. I’m trying to remember where I’ve seen them before. I think one of them was at the cultural festival, with the guy Slavian guy and the movie about FGM. She was helping her mother with a display on Korean dress and traditional dance.

Monday, September 29, 2008
To play catchup, aikido on Thursday was great, I did very little on Friday but watch the movie “The Fall” and get all emotional and the eat cheese and then Gchat with Nina (shout out, hollaback), and then Saturday hit.

Ah, Saturday. It started off with a phone conversation with m’good friend Hannah, then some brunch by the moat with Margaret and a visiting ALT named Matt. Then, after losing my internet connection in one spot and carrying my laptop around until I got a signal, I talked with my parents. Scrumtrelescent. Then I joined Margaret to head to Arashiyama, where the monkeys are. Two Ugi ALTs met us at the station, and the four of us traipsed through the scenic area to the Monkey Park. And here you have the following:

A Monkey Montage

Takoyaki and Taco Pahty

Oishi so! If you want an explanation of my calligraphy landscape in the background, ask and ye shall receive.





From right to left: Margaret, Kim-Chi, Nanami, Yumi (another calligrapher and a teacher
at one of Kim's schools), Mayu.
The Kansai-ben discussed, if I haven't already said it, is a regional dialect in our area whose American counterpart would be Creole or Amish Dutch.


I'm kind of going backwards, which means I'm working on typing out everything that I had to say before this post. This is just a teaser, to keep you lookin'.

Dewa matta.

MUKADE EXIST

End of September 22: First order of the day was, of course, to irritate Inoe-san with my travel plans. Tuesday’s a holiday, so I took a half day. I met Margaret (who has the whole day off) and we grabbed bentos to eat by the moat. While at the grocery a random woman came up to me and started telling me that it was bad for me to be there with Margaret, because that wouldn’t help up to practice our Japanese. She was smiling, and phrasing it like a joke (according to Margaret. The woman was not speaking English), but it was nevertheless uncomfortable. After our delicious lunch, we decided to hike up to the lookout point for Japanese studying (shut up, old woman in grocery store. I’m doing my best). It seemed to stick a little better this time, which is of course a sign that I must always study out of doors.

At taiko that night we were finessing the rhythm on which we had worked since beginning. The leaders split up the group at the end, making jokes about Team America versus Team Junior. Translation: the foreigners versus the students (ages 10 to 17, in this case) plus the one guy who came late. Next day’s a holiday, so decide to do something when we get back.

That night was more Arrested Development at Liz’s place! Finish disc 1. On the way back we see a live mukade. See reaction below.



I heard that part of the reason why mukade encounters result in painful swelling is because the poison is also delivered through their nasty little legs. If a mukade is on a surface, and a creature attempts to remove the mukade from said surface, the mukade will grip the surface with it’s face pincers and legs, thereby distributing the poison to the surface. The poison legs sound a little farfetched, but I don’t want to experiment to see if it’s true.

September 23: Wake up at 1. Sweet, sweet slumber. I cleaned and did laundry, swept half the porch (harder than it sounds. My brooms are crap). Hit up the 100 Yen store (yes, it’s exactly like what you think), clean till the cows come home in prep for the party.

September 24: Well, tonight’s the night. Tacos and takoyaki, featuring myself, Margaret and Kim, and Nanami, Mayu and another girl from shodo named Yumi (there’s also a woman in shodo named Mayumi, but she’s not coming, so that’s neither here nor there). I need to cook meat, vacuum and chop fruit before they arrive. I’ll put up some pictures of the event later, provided I take them. Hey, Mom, wish me luck.